For some of us, its hard to find what topic in Software Engineering we want to specialize and concentrate on. For me, I’ve enjoyed my journey between back end to front end and much in between, server and database administration to requirement gathering and customer and bug management. While I firmly agree that developers are most valuable as generalists, including within an Agile team, I think we also need to pair our generalization with a clear direction. It would seem only natural that our learning and career endeavors should follow our human need for identity, and a jack-of-all-trades is useful, but by itself, a bit boring and probably not quite ideal.

This is why I have chosen to make Software Professionalism my bread and butter. As an industry, we have a lot of maturing to do. As Mary Shaw from Carnegie Melon recently highlighted in her talk at ICSE 2016 in Austin, we have a ways to go to be able to properly consider ourselves Engineers. I feel motivated and passionate about moving toward true Engineering, as an individual, on my team at my company, and in the wider industry.

This is why I will also be refocusing my blog toward this topic. I look forward to generating debate on this, and to learn a lot more about what it means to become a true Engineer.